Munich Terror Threat Remains in Place, Stations Open Again

German special police stand in front of Munich's main train station on Dec. 31, 2015, after police warned of 'imminent threat' of terror attack. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)
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Associated PressBy Associated Press

BERLIN -- Munich train stations reopened and trains were running on New Year's Day, but a terror warning about Islamic State extremists intending to blow themselves up in the German city remained in place.

"The information about an imminent terror attack at midnight was very concrete," police spokeswoman Elisabeth Matzinger told The Associated Press. "Even though nothing happened, our terror warning stays in place."

Just shortly before the city rang in the new year, Munich police had evacuated the main train station and a station in the Pasing neighborhood. Party-goers were asked to avoid crowds.

At a late-night news conference, Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said a friendly foreign intelligence service had warned Germany of an imminent terror attack at midnight by between five and seven Islamic State militants planning to blow themselves up at different locations in Munich including the two stations.

Authorities were investigating intensively on Friday, Matzinger said, but so far had not made any arrests.

More than 500 police and special unit officers from all over the southern Bavaria region were called to Munich late Friday night to help evacuate and secure the stations.

Despite police warnings to stay away from big crowds, thousands of people were on the streets of Munich at midnight to welcome the new year with fireworks.

Cities across Europe have been on edge since an attack in Paris in November that killed 130 people.

A few days after the Paris attack, a soccer stadium in Hanover in central Germany was evacuated after a threat against a friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands. The authorities never reported any findings of explosives or concrete attack plans.